


twelve thousand light years

by watergator



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Aliens, M/M, Main Character Death, No Graphic Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 08:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21072269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watergator/pseuds/watergator
Summary: it's the end of the world and phil is one of the aliens that invade earth





	twelve thousand light years

Dan couldn’t help but deny a lot of the supernatural in life. He’d argue with logic and science, he didn’t mind being booed at during work pub lunches when he’d dismiss somebody's ghost story with a wave of his hand and a muttering of:

“Bullshit.”

Dan liked telling people he didn’t believe in those things. The world was too confusing and too straight lined to care about where your soul really goes when the important stuff in your body stops working. He tells people when they ask him, that he suspects everyone ends up in the ground or in ashes and that’s that; nothing beautiful and spectacular, and he does enjoy the good scoff he gets in return, like he’s successfully pissed someone off for his own cynical views on life.

One thing Dan does believe in, is Aliens.

He has science on his side to back up him, and if he hadn’t then he’d easily dismiss them along with everything else that’s supposedly unexplained in the world.

He believes that there has to be some kind of life form outside their sphere home, and when he tells people this, they’re genuinely shocked at his answer. He likes that. He likes having aliens being the counterpart in his own argument

However, to Dan, aliens aren’t big headed, bulbous eyed monsters that have three fingers on each hand with a similar resemblance to ET.

Aliens are most likely just molecules or some kind of outer world bacteria that’s thriving on a far away planet just await to evolve like they had all once done here on Earth.

Dan doesn’t believe that aliens are some threat to mankind, and he happily shrugs off the idea of an invasion telling his coworker over his third beer:

“I’ll find a boyfriend faster than aliens invade.”

And it’s a joke, a funny one at that that gets the table laughing and Dan feeling proud of himself.

Until it’s not.

He’s in his apartment and he’s sweating. He’s now sure how much time has passed but the signal on his tv is starting to fade and he feels like once it’s disappeared he’ll be lost forever.

He’s been glued to the same news channel for as long as the night has turned to day. His eyes are burning and he has a sick feeling in his stomach.

Aliens. 

Aliens have attacked Earth.

He’s watching the chaos happen on his screen with wide, frightful eyes. His curtains are drawn all the way across to keep the room in a shadowy darkness but he knows if he were to look outside his window he’d be able to see the same kind of madness that was being played out on the screen.

He gulps, watching the shaky phone footage of someone crouched behind the car, the audio is muffled and bad and Dan can barely hear what’s happening. He recognises the street— it’s not far from here, just by where he gets his bagels in the morning before work.

His stomach sinks to his feet as he watches the film shake and the man lets out a sob. The alien marches towards him and grabs the phone. He screams and the footage goes still, freezing on the blurred struggle before it cuts away.

The news reader looks horrified. Her jaw hangs open and her eyes glisten with tears. She looks off camera, as if she’s listening to someone, but she shakes her head.

“I can’t,” she speaks, voice hoarse and on the edge of real panic. “I have to go, I have to go.”

And with that, she does, leaving her news station empty, and eventually, Dan hears the sound of feet running further and further away from the camera's mic, until the room is empty and silent, everyone gone.

Dan’s right about one thing, he thinks as he starts to pace his living room with quick, frantic steps. The aliens don’t look like how aliens are expected to look.

They’re not pale green or squishy looking.

They look—

Dan hears a scream come from the floor below him and a loud crash. It sounds like a door being burst open and Dan panics.

They’re in his apartment building now. He hears the struggle beneath him. A woman’s voice pleads and pleads and pleads and screams and begs.

Dan closes his eyes and crouches down in the middle of the room as if it’ll make it stop.

There’s a final scream, cut short and the apartment below him is now deadly silent.

Dan feels his stomach roll inside him, making him feel nauseated and uneasy.

He hears footsteps coming up the stairs to his floor. The feeling in his gut only intensifies.

His door is locked but he supposes the same could have been said for his neighbour. He stands there in his living room, tv blank now, and his heart hammers against his chest.

If he dies, he dies. He doesn’t want to think about what will happen if he were to survive. Doesn’t want to think of what that life looks like beyond this one moment. Doesn’t want it at all.

Shadows come under his door and his breath hitches. The handle twists slowly and Dan braces himself, ready to look death straight in the eyes.

The door handle wiggles a bit more, and then the door bursts open, flying off of its hinges. Dan is frozen to the spot as they march into his room.

He looks at them. They look as human as he is. It feels like all his insides fall out of him at once.

They speak a tongue that Dan doesn’t understand and he still can’t move. He’ll die with no last words and he’ll die without any kind of fight. It seems fitting for him he thinks, and as one of them pulls out rod of metal, Dan wonders if these are his last thoughts.

He has no time to really think of anything else before he’s being blasted by light, and the last thing he remembers is flying through the air, eyes closing before he has time to hit the ground.

*

When Dan wakes up, he wonders if he’d been wrong about an afterlife after all. Everything is white. He blinks his eyes a few times and things come into clarity.

He can make out a ceiling above him and the feeling of metal under his body.

He feels cold, and he feels afraid.

If this was his punishment for never believing in heaven, then he wishes to take it back. He’s scared and alone here.

He’s not sure what to do.

He can’t quite lift his head up and his entire body feels trapped and paralized from where he’s stuck in this unfamiliar space.

He can only hear the sound of his own ragged breathing coming out in little uneven puffs of air, until there’s a swoosh and the sound of something walking across the floor towards him.   
  
His heart kicks hard against his chest and Dan finds himself repeating old prayer that’s been sat at the back of his mind since he’s spend Sunday mornings at church with his grandma, and he closes his eyes, hearing the sound of whatever it is walking towards him grow louder and closer.   
  
His eyes are squeezed shut so tight it almost hurts and Dan almost lets out a yelp when he feels something cold touch at his forehead.   
  
He tries to shrink away from it but his body is still stuck as it is, and every fibre in his being is telling him to run, but he just can’t.   
  
Behind closed eyelids he can make out a shadow from where it looms over him, blocking out the bright white ceiling.   
  
The coldness leaves his forehead, and a sweaty curl drops down. Dan opens his eyes just as a finger brushes it away.   
  
A gasp catches in his throat.   
  
Standing over him is a man. He looks like a man, on the outside, but Dan could make a million guesses as to why this guy wasn’t a normal man on the inside.   
  
He has bright blue eyes— maybe too bright to be considered normal and black hair that’s pushed back off his face.   
  
His lips are drawn in a tight line and he’s looking right at Dan like he’s peering into his soul.   
  
“Earth,” the alien speaks suddenly, it’s voice seems to echo off the walls. “Five one point five zero seven nine, north.” He pauses slightly before speaking again. “Zero point one two seven eight, west.”   
  
Dan gulps, eyes flitting up and down the alien stood over him. The alien looks back at him.   
  
“Temperature, below average with a five degree decrease. Gaging heat at a six degree increase.”   
  
Dan feels the bed he’s laying on start to warm beneath him like one of those fancy car seat heaters, but it doesn’t feel fancy at all. It feels horrifying.   
  
Dan tries to squirm away at the alien starts to walk down his bed. Dan can’t see him when he’s stood at his feet but he feels a cold hand prod at his socked toe. He does his best to flinch away, but his body doesn’t react at all still.   
  
“Bodily fluid provider base currently working at a maximum of 120... no… 124 pumps. Bodily fluid pressure averagely low.”   
  
Dan whimpers as he hears the alien circle back up to his head.   
  
He stares into his eyes and Dan looks at him, sure enough his face is pleading and pathetic.   
  
“Outer skin in seemingly good order,” he speaks. His voice is monotone and flat. It makes Dan’s stomach squirm. “Subject has small half inch incision on left lower limb, presumed scarring tissue, testing yet to confirm that, if need be.”   
  
Dan lets out a sob as the alien turns his head to look at his legs. He quickly looks at Dan again.   
  
There’s tears rolling down his cheeks and his bottom lip is quivering. He’s feeling every ounce of fear pounding in his chest as the alien leans in close to his face and touches at the tear that’s wetly making it’s way across his cheek.   
  
“Subject has produced bodily fluid. High increase of sodium chloride, other substances yet to be determined.”   
  
Dan watches him rub his finger and thumb together, smearing the wetness of his tears over his fingertips. He looks at Dan when he brings his finger to his tongue and tastes his tears. Dan lets out another choked sob. Fear prickles hotly at his skin.   
  
The alien simply hums, and frowns. “Subject has produced higher levels of sodium chloride at a high increase. Common areas are head area, underarm area and chest area. Subject to be tested for abnormality in rapid production of bodily fluid, will compare notes to confirm.”   
  
Dan can feel the sweat form over his body despite the shiver in his bones. The alien looks at him.   
  
“Bodily fluid provider base now working at a maximum of 130 pumps. Relaxers to be engaged to full capacity of somnolence. Minor tests and recordings complete.”   
  
Dan feels another cry get lodged in his throat but before it can be let out, the alien turns away and walks out where it came from. Dan watches it in hazy vision as he begins to feel the drowsiness of sleep overtake him. He listens to the sound of far away footsteps as his eyes close and he succumbs to the calling of sleep.

*

When Dan wakes up, he feels floaty.

He doesn’t open his eyes just yet, and instead sinks his head deeper into his pillow, wondering if he goes deep enough he might drift back to sleep, resuming the dream he’d had that feels blurred at the edges; not quite tangible in his early morning wake.

He scrunches his nose up. Something smells… chemically. Like the bleach he puts down his toilets.

He wants to open his eyes but his body begs for sleep, just a little longer.

He sighs, and shifts under his warm blanket that makes the fall back asleep easier.

Except he moves his left arm and opens his eyes in surprise when he feels a sharp pinch over his hand.

When he sits up he suddenly remembers he’s not in his own bed.

His heart is pounding again, trying to remember the events that happened before the last time he’d closed his eyes.

He remembers the attack, remembers the blast. He remembers the cold horrid metal table and the alien with the black, swept back hair that was prodding at his feet.

He swallows thickly and look at the tube in his hand.

He’s not a doctor, not by a long shot but Dan touches it. It’s a little sore and bruised feeling but Dan wastes no time on ripping it out.

He gives a small yelp, cradling his now bleeding hand to his chest as his eyes dart around the room.

He’s not sure if he’s where he was when he woke up earlier, but the bed is more like a bed and his clothes are gone, now replaced with a white gown.

His breathing is heavy. He can’t find a door and he doesn’t know what to do. The longer he sits here, the more danger he could be in.

He’s about to swing his legs over the bed when suddenly a door appears at the end of the room, and the same alien comes hurrying over.

He has a crease between his brows and his lips are a thin line.

Dan freezes on the bed, poor hand still clutched to his chest where he can feel his heart attempting its escape from his chest.

“Please,” Dan says in a weak voice as it approaches him. He doubts it even heard him.

“Don’t hurt me,” Dan cries as the alien appears in front of him. Dan looks down at it’s normal feet and back to it’s normal head.

Then, it gives a warm chuckle.

“You did that to yourself already.”

It’s voice has changed; it’s less flat and dull and more cheerful.

Dan blinks at it.

“Let me see?” It asks, pointing to Dan’s hand.

Dan is reluctant but gingerly holds his hand out. He stares at it, afraid it might be chopped off and this is the last he’ll see of it.

But the alien simply holds it in his cool hands and touches at the skin where it’s purple and bleeding.

It stops, almost immediately and the alien gives a little grunt, as if it’s pleased with itself.

Dan studies his hand before putting it into his lap, looking at the alien.

He may have fixed his hand, but there were still big problems going on.

Like where was he, and why the hell was he even here?

“You’re approximately a twelve thousand light years away from Planterial Sphere you call ‘Earth’,” the salient speaks proudly, and Dan jumps back on his bed.

“What—“ Dan squeaks unable to get any real words out, and the alien laughs.

“Your hive was wondering that, no?”

Dan guesses he means brain, but he nods slowly, still cautious and on edge.

Then, it hits Dan what he even said.

“Wait. A twelve thousand light years away?” He exclaims.

The alien nods. “Correct.”

Dan feels overwhelmed and he shuffles back onto his bed to bring his legs up to his chest.

He feels breathless all of a sudden. He’s so far from home now. He’s beyond far from home and he feels afraid, lost and so very alone.

“You’re not technically alone. You are not a species of large herd numbers, are you?”

Dan looks up at the alien whilst he catches his breath.

“I’m not alone?” He asks. “There’s more on this… spaceship?” He says.

The alien nods. “We have a varied collection from all your different habitual areas on your planet,” he smiles before he frowns. “We were unfortunately unable to retrieve any survivors from beneath land. Experts explored your waters but no such humans were found. I suspect they fled before the end.”

Dan sucks in a breath. “What?”

The alien blinks at him.

“Oh,” he says softly. “I do have some, quite terrible news I should inform you of,” he says in a sympathetic tone.

Dan wraps his arms around his legs. This can’t be happening, this is just a really weird strange dream. This alien probably just has the face of someone he passed on the underground the other day and now it’s made some really strange scenario in his head and he’ll wake up any second now.

“Your Earth,” the aliens speaks clearly. “It has been destroyed.”

The words bounce around in his head like they’re drummed into his skull to make him believe and more than he does now.

It can’t be real. It can’t. Earth is his home, it can't just be…  _ gone. _

He thinks about his mum, his brother, his nana and the few very small handful of friends he had. He lets out a sob.

If what the alien is telling him is true, then they almost be gone too.

“You’re experiencing an emote coming in chemical form from the hive. Grief? Is it?“ The alien asks as Dan sobs into his knees.

“What do you want?” Dan sobs, his chest shakes and his body feels weak at tired. “What even are you?”

Dan lets out a few more tears escape his body. His heart hurts and he feels numb.    
  
He looks up at the alien through blurred vision but he can just make out the concerned look it gives him.   
  
Then a finger reaches out and pokes at Dan’s upper lip, where snot and tears have mixed and he’s quick to wipe it away with the back of his wrist.   
  
The alien has his snot on his finger, marvelling at it like it’s something new and fascinating.   
  
“Substance unknown,” the alien mutters as he rubs two fingers together. Dan grimaces at the sight.

“What—“ Dan cuts himself off with a stuttered sob and the alien looks slightly startled. Dan takes a shaky breath and continues.

“You didn’t answer me,” he speaks, feeling a sudden urge of confidence overcome him; he’s sick of feeling weak and hopeless. “What the hell are you doing and where am I?”

The alien gives him a hurt look, and Dan isn’t sure if it’s the human expression that makes him feel a tad bad for it, but he keeps his expression cool, unforgiving.

The alien shifts on his feet and clears its throat (if aliens even have real throats, Dan thinks.)

“We come from a galaxy almost parallel from yours,” the alien starts. 

Dan blinks. “So… you’re almost, kinda human?” He says slowly.

The alien shakes its head. “No. Not quite.”

Dan looks the alien up and down. “You look human,” he says rather accusingly.

The alien gives a short laugh. “We do,” he admits, “but this isn’t a final form we take.”

Dan wraps his head around the words, sounding something completely ripped from a crappy straight to tv sci fi movie.

“We blend to our environment,” it tells him with a wave of his hand, rather awkwardly. “It took a few tries to blend to the superior species. At first we believed it was the mammals on your planet, and then plant life, but we were mildly surprised to find it was your human species we’d have to take the form of to fit in. Rather strange, actually.”

Dan can’t help but let out a sharp laugh, bitter and startling.

“Sounds about right, humanity was always up their own asses. Don’t need a bloody alien to tell us that though.”

There’s a long, drawn out silence. Dan buries his head in his knees again. He almost feels sick with his hard hitting everything is.

“I’m sorry.”

Dan looks up. The alien is giving him a sympathetic look. But how how sympathetic can an alien be? How much sadness do they hold in comparison to Dan when the creature in front of him doesn’t even know what snot is? How can it possibly be sorry then? How does it understand and compute the same feelings that he’s feeling right now?

He hasn’t the energy to fight or argue. He feels weak in every sense. He wants to lay down and cry and hope to wake up from this very real feeling nightmare soon.

“Are you going to kill me?” He croaks. He doesn’t care what the answer is anymore; he doesn’t fear that like he would have done merely hours before this had all happened.

He looks up. The alien shakes his head.

“Then what? You’ll test me and prod at me until I do eventually die?”

The alien shakes his head again.

“You’ve been submitted into the category of reproduction. Starting a new life for a new age of humanity. We’re heading to your new planet as we speak.”

Dan lets out a laugh. It’s wet and watery and sad sounding and he’s crying again.

It’s almost humerus. “Fuck off,” he grits his teeth.

The alien looks unnerved.

“Leave me alone. You did this,” he cries, more tears burn at his eyes and his cheeks are wet with it. “Leave me  _ alone.” _

The alien doesn’t move despite the straight face it gives him. 

“I can’t,” it tells him in a quiet voice. “I’ve been assigned to assess you. Emotional reactions and physical.”

Dan laughs again angrily and the alien does this time take a step back.

“I don’t want to,” he spits. “Tell that to your dear leader: that I’m coping horrendously, that I fucking refuse to do what you say and I’d rather die than follow your rules.”

His chest heaves and he knows he has more to say bubbling up inside of him but he stares at the alien with narrows eyes, teeth gritted and chest puffed out like some primal ape. Maybe that’s what it is; stripped back to his survival instincts.

The alien shifts on its feet.

“I’m not going to report that,” it tells him in a soft voice. It’s too quiet, too relaxed and too  _ nice _ sounding for Dan to have an argument with. It makes him even more mad.

“Why?” He asks. “Because your project will then be a failure? Because you’ll get in trouble?” He taunts.

If he was feeling brave enough he’d maybe get out of this bed and stand up to it, getting right in its face like he’s never done before.

The alien gulps and shakes its head.

“No,” he whispers. “Because if you’re not fit for the civilisation group, you’ll be segregated into a different group.”

Dan’s eyes flicker over it’s concerned looking face. “And what different groups are there?”

The alien looks at him, as if pleading for him not to ask, but Dan won’t back down.

“There’s the labour groups,” it tells him. “They’ll work on the physical aspect of creating your world. Those selected are of the physically higher standards.”

Dan bites his lip. That’s not him then.

“Okay,” Dan says with a shake of his head. “So you took a bunch of humans off Earth; you divided them into groups of people who can build shit and people who can… repopulate our species,” he says with a grimace. “What other plans do you have with us? What if we refuse? Surely you can’t fight all of us, can you?”

He feels a jab of pride in his chest. Maybe he can stand up to these bastard aliens.

The alien looks down, and looks back at Dan.

“Actually,” he says with a sad kind of voice. “We can.”

Dan pauses, the smirk on his face seems to slip away off his face.

“What?”

The alien frowns at him, a crease between his brows that seems far too human.

“Dan,” the alien says, and Dan doesn’t even question how it knows his name. His heart is beating too fast right now to care.

“Dan, if you don’t comply to your given role on this new age of humanity, then you’ll have no other choice to be segregated into a new group.”

Dan swallows down the lump in his throat.

“Labour?” He asks, voice small and confidence long gone now.

The alien shakes his head.

“It’s called the Human Skin group,” the alien tells him. 

Dan freezes.

“We’ll take and use your skin. The programme is already in place with humans already being sorted. I’m sorry, Dan.”

Dan chokes out a sob. “No,” he shakes his head.

“No, don’t.”

The alien clears its throat. “It’s not a practice I exactly… condone,” it tells him in a quiet voice. “But at the level I am at, unfortunately there’s not much choice.”

Dan blinks at it. “Don’t send me there,” he tells it. “I won’t have your alien babies but I’m not giving you my fucking skin.”

The alien gives him a pained look.

“Failure to reproduce results in a three day examination as to if the subject is healthy enough to provide results.” 

Dan gulps.

“Any negative results will determine destroying said subject and using skin and other human organs to produce new life ourselves.”

Dan shakes his head. “You can’t.” He whispers. “You can’t do that.”

The alien moves forward. “I know,” he shakes his head too. “I’m sorry this happened to you, Dan. There’s not much I can do for you though.”

Dan presses the heels of his hands over his eyes. “You could bust me out,” he says, half joking, half serious.

The alien gives a small, sad laugh. Dan pulls his hands away to look at him.

“Are you…” he goes to ask. His mouth feels dry and his body feels cold. 

“Are you wearing a skinned human suit now?” He asks, voice delicate, almost unsure if he really wants to know the answer.

He gets a small wave of relief when the alien shakes his head. “No. This is just a biocopy created from research.”

Dan sniffs. “Right.”

The alien places his hand over Dan’s. It’s cold, but weirdly comforting.

“I really am sorry, Dan.”

Dan looks down to where his their skin touches. He could almost laugh— he’s touching a real alien. It’s holding his hand kinda.

“I never asked what your name is,” Dan asks, looking back up at its face.

“b-H1L,” the alien tells him.

Dan hums. “S’not very catchy, is it?”

b-H1L shrugs. “What’s catchy?”

Dan gives a small laugh. He’s thinking about his options. Would it be better to live a life in captivity? Or just die now?

He wonders how painful it would be. How much would it hurt and would it be worth it. He doesn’t want it to hurt, if it ever came down to it. He wants it to be nice. Something peaceful and relaxed.

“I’ll call you Phil,” he says after some consideration. “Kinda old fashioned but sounds way better than a jumble of letters.”

The alien smiles at him.

“Are you okay?” It asks.

Dan shakes his head. “No. I feel… strange.”

The alien runs it’s cold hand over Dan’s.

“I engaged relaxers into your bloodstream. You should feel more at ease.”

Dan snorts a laugh. That explains the nonchalance about him right now.

“Great.” Dan sighs. “Thanks.”

Phil says nothing.

“I suppose when I wake I’ll be ready to be your human baby slave, hm?” He slurs his words like he’s drunk. His brain feels fuzzy and his body feels floaty.

He’s feeling more and more tired. Phil's hand doesn’t move from his.

“It’ll be alright,” Phil whispers. “You’ll wake to be alright.”

Dan feels his heart slow in his chest. Maybe Phil’s right. Maybe it will be alright.

“Phil…” Dan whispers, his eyes struggle to open, but he keeps his focus on that face above him as he slumps into his pillow.

“Phil,” he says again. “Thank you.”

Phil gives him a small smile. “It’s only a tiny freedom,” he whispers.

Dan lets out a hushed laugh. “The best kind, though.”

Phil holds his hand still, and Dan closes his eyes. He thinks about what life he could have had in this new age of humanity. What life he could have lived if he’d stayed and lived by the rules.

But before he can really think about it too hard, a single tear falls from his face, and his chest grows silent.

“Body fluid provider… zero pumps,” Phil whispers to nobody.

“End of life analysis complete.”

The door swishes open just as Phil pulls the sheet over Dan’s body. He looks so still, like he’s sleeping.

“Test complete?” The alien asks.

Phil nods. 

“Tactic used?” 

Phil clears his throat. “Used shock tactic involving information of various Human Groups. Then gave human emotion known as sympathy. Subject willing to die in the end. Was rather… peaceful, sir.”

The alien gives a curt nod. “Good work b-H1L, download results into hyper wave under End of Life Group.”

Phil nods and watches the alien leave. Just him and Dan remain in the room now.

He looks at Dan’s still body. He touches the hand that pokes out from under the sheet.

It’s just as cold as his is. And in the end, they always are.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on tumblr !! @watergator


End file.
